


The Spark and His Wolf

by Kiti_the_Warrior_Poet



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Derek Hale & Stiles Stilinski are Childhood Friends, M/M, Mates Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Spark Stiles Stilinski, mentions of Kate Argent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-09
Updated: 2017-06-09
Packaged: 2018-11-11 13:43:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11149620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiti_the_Warrior_Poet/pseuds/Kiti_the_Warrior_Poet
Summary: Stiles Stilinski grew up with his mother calling him her "little bit of magic" and with Derek Hale looking at him like he was the most magnificent star in the sky, so it's only natural that Stiles' "little bit of magic" would make itself known in order to protect Derek.





	1. Intro

**Author's Note:**

> This is my piece for the Sterek Reverse Bang inspired by [this amazing art](http://hd-hale.tumblr.com/post/161600717404/second-piece-of-art-for-the-sterekreversebang) by HD-Hale. Beta-ed by the wonderful [Write2Live](http://write2live.tumblr.com/) all mistakes are my own. I hope you enjoy!

Most of the people living in Beacon Hills do so without the knowledge that they share the town with many supernatural beings. The Stilinski family, however, has always been fully aware of the supernatural presence in Beacon Hills seeing as they themselves come from the supernatural world. When John and Claudia discovered that Claudia was pregnant, they fled to Beacon Hills to seek refuge with the Hale Pack for the safety of their unborn child.

Claudia was born human to two werewolf parents who were members of the Turnbull Pack.  The Turnbull Pack was a very conservative pack that did not believe in having human members.  Claudia was the first pack child born human and she was expected to take The Bite on her eighteenth birthday.  Her body would either reject the bite and she would die, or the bite would take and she would finally be recognized as a member of the pack.  Claudia was going to go along with it too because she could see no alternative, but then she met John Stilinski and her life changed forever.

Noah Johnathan “Please just call me John” Stilinski was born into the Kent Pack.  John was born to the Kent Pack’s young emissary, Kathleen.  Kathleen left her home to start her training at the age of fifteen.  When her mentor dismissed her early when it was discovered that Kathleen was pregnant outside of wedlock at the age of seventeen, the Kent Pack took her in and one of their own married her and raised her son as their own.  John never met his birth father, but Noah Stilinski adopted him and John could not have been more loved.  John did not inherit his mother’s spark, but he was still fully accepted as a member of the pack even in all of his humanity.

When John met Claudia, he introduced her to the idea that a pack could include human members without the threat of forcing The Bite on them.  The two of them quickly fell in love and they were married just seven months after they met.  Claudia was welcomed into the Kent Pack with open arms and open hearts.  Three and a half years into marriage Claudia and John realized that something was preventing them from having children.

 

After years of watching the love of his life struggle with her inability to conceive, John made the decision to suggest that they consult a doctor.  After months of tests and waiting John and Claudia finally met with their doctor to discuss the results from their tests.

 

Claudia was nervous about meeting with the doctor, but John just reassured her that no matter what the tests said, they still had options.  Adoption had always been something important to John and Claudia while felt the same way she still had a deep-seated desire to carry a child of her own.

 

When the doctor revealed that the issue was with Claudia’s fertility Claudia was devastated, but John refused to let her give up and convinced her to come with him to seek guidance from their Alpha.

 

After talking with Raymond Kent, the alpha of the Kent Pack, John and Claudia learned that infertility was a common issue for human children born to two werewolves.  They also learned that many packs have historically viewed these fertility issues as nature’s way of preventing weak offspring from reproducing.  However, the Kent Pack has always believed that these fertility issues mean that any offspring that are born in spite of the issues will be a force to be reckoned with.

Unfortunately, the Turnbull Pack held the more popular of the two opinions for the area of the country in which they lived.  And so, when John and Claudia learned that they were expecting a child, at long last, it was with the blessing of their pack that they fled to the other side of the country to seek sanctuary with the Hale Pack in Beacon Hills.

The Hale’s and the Kent’s have been good friends and allies for generations, and John, Claudia, and their unborn child were welcomed with open arms.  When John and Claudia welcomed their little ball of energy into the world it was an event celebrated as fiercely as the birth of the alpha’s own pup had been only a few months prior.


	2. Chapter 2

As you get older the easier it is to look back on your life and point out the moments that changed you forever.  For Stiles Stilinski the first of these moments took place on January 8th, 2001, the first day of his second semester of fourth grade.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Being a human born into a werewolf pack had its advantages, Stiles will admit, although he never thought that the protection that it entailed would be him (the human) protecting Derek Hale (the alpha’s son).  Before this day, if you were to ask either Stiles or Derek if there were any advantages to making Stiles start public school in Kindergarten while also making Derek be homeschooled until after his tenth birthday, the answer would have been a resounding no from both of them.

See, Stiles and Derek have been best friends for as long as they can remember.  They spent practically every moment together, but then Stiles had to start school.  This meant an end to weeknight sleepovers.  Attending public school also brought new challenges for Stiles; such as having to learn to make new friends outside of the pack for the first time in his life.  Not to mention, learning to remember that growling and tackling someone is not a human-appropriate response to anger.  

 

For Derek, the biggest challenge presented itself in the form of jealousy.  While Stiles was learning to share his crayons with his table-mates at school, Derek was having to learn to share his best friend with kids that Derek himself didn't even know.

Since Derek's birthday falls on Christmas, his parents gave him the choice of either starting public school halfway through fourth grade or waiting until the beginning of fifth grade. To Derek the answer was clear, Stiles was at public school, so that was where Derek wanted to be, as soon as possible.

While the boys were sad to learn that Derek would not be joining Stiles in Mr. Jenson's fourth-grade classroom when he started public school they were still ecstatic to once again be able to see each other every day.  "Besides," Stiles reassured Derek, "we'll still have morning recess, lunch, and afternoon recess together!  And those are the most fun parts of the day!”

Derek started regretting his decision before the first bell even rang. While attending public school did mean getting to spend more time with Stiles, it also meant having to put up with Jackson Whittemore, who happened to be seated next to him on the seating chart. Derek had heard horror stories about Jackson “Jackass” Whitmore all last year from Stiles. Derek, for the sake of his control, had decided to give Jackson the benefit of the doubt and get to know him on his own terms. Jackson blew that plan out of the water the second Derek took his seat, leaning over to whisper into his friend's ear, "Hey Danny, look! It's one of those Hale freaks. My dad says they're like a cult or something and that's why they don't let their kids go to public school for until fifth grade.  This Hale must be even more of a freak if his own family didn’t even want to keep him around until fourth grade was over."

The world was starting to take on a golden tint and Derek had to hide his hands in his armpits before Jackson even finished talking. Derek was so focused on his breathing that he didn't hear the teacher dismiss the class to morning recess until Jackson shoved him on his way to the door muttering the word freak under his breath.

As soon as the classroom door opened Derek zeroed in on Stiles' heartbeat and he could instantly breathe again, feeling his claws and fangs retract, and once again able to see the world clearly. Derek made his way to the playground staying as far away from Jackson as possible.

Stiles knew something was wrong the instant he saw Derek walk through the door to the playground. Stiles rushed to his best friend and ushered him to the other side of the playground next to the broken down swings, where no one liked to play. "Derek, buddy, what's wrong?" Stiles inquired.

“Nothing,” Derek denied, shaking his head.

Before Stiles could call Derek on the obvious lie an all too familiar voice called out from behind him, “Look!  The freaks are friends!  I always knew Stiles was weird, but I didn’t realize that he hung out with freaks like Hale!”

Stiles looked up just in time to catch Derek’s eyes flash before he hid his face in his hands hiding his growing nails in his dark mop of hair.  Stiles whipped around to stare down Jackson and saw Danny attempt to stop the forward motion of Jackson’s right arm.

Knowing that Jackson throwing those rocks could mean nothing but trouble, Danny took off running to get a teacher.  Several things happened all at once after that.

 

Suddenly there was a loud popping noise where the rocks that Jackson had thrown at Derek exploded in the air like miniature fireworks.  Jackson was flung backward with such force that his feet came up off of the ground as he went flying through the air.  Before the scream could fully form in his throat, Jackson found himself three feet away from where he had been standing, flat on his back with a broken right arm.  Derek stood tall behind Stiles, ready to step in front of his friend in order to protect him, all signs of his beta shift gone within the blink of an eye leaving Derek posed in that calm before the storm ready to strike at a moment’s notice.  Then, before he even had the chance to realize what he had done, Stiles passed out with a bloody nose, Derek’s werewolf reflexes the only thing that saved him from a concussion.

When Stiles woke up, his left hand was gently clasped between two clawed hands which belonged to a very worried looking Derek in full beta shift, and his right hand was clasped between two much larger hands one of which belonged to his mother while the other belonged to his father.  Stiles' first thought was that he needed to help Derek get control over his shift before someone saw him, but a voice behind his head broke him out of his thoughts before he could act on them.

"Ah, Stiles," a calm voice that Stiles couldn't quite place spoke, "I see you are awake now. You have proven yourself to possess quite a powerful spark today."

"Huh?" Stiles questioned as he tried to twist to see the source of the voice.

Dr. Alan Deaton walked around the table that Stiles was laying on so that everyone would have an unobstructed view of him before speaking again, "You possess a very powerful spark, Stiles. How much do remember about what happened on the playground today?"

Stiles turned a confused look at Derek and tried to think of the last thing he could remember. Derek, who had been able to come out of his beta shift now that Stiles was awake again, gave Stiles' hand an encouraging squeeze and nodded his head in a go on fashion. "Um," Stiles began, "the last thing I remember for sure is that Jackass," Stiles cringes remembering that his parents are standing next to him, "Uh,” he coughs, “I mean, Jackson, was about to throw a rock at Derek, and I knew that I couldn't let the rock hit Derek.”  Recovering from his mistake in swearing in front of his parents, Stiles squeezed Derek’s hand and squared his shoulders, sitting up a bit more straight, “Derek I trust your control but you never know what might happen in new situations, and even if you didn't wolf out there would still be the whole healing thing.”  Stiles meets Derek’s eyes before looking away quickly focussing instead on his parents, “And I just, I was worried about how best to protect Derek and how to get Jackson away from him. I thought about jumping in front of the rock but then I was worried about how Derek would react if Jackson hurt me,” Stiles pauses looking at his feet and squirming in place a bit before looking up at Deaton, “and... and... and then everything went bright and loud and then I woke up here," Stiles finishes in a rush.

The silence that followed started to grow worryingly tense before Derek cleared his throat, squeezing Stiles’ hand once again before speaking up, “That’s basically what happened?” Derek shrugged his shoulders, “Jackson was being a jerk to me, well not to my face but I could still hear him, and Stiles,” Derek ducked his head and squeezed Stiles’ hand just a tiny bit harder, “you know me so well, you knew something was wrong as soon as you saw me” Derek finished briefly meeting Stiles’ eyes and smiling before quickly focussing back on where his hands held Stiles’, “Jackson dragged Danny after us and when he threw those rocks Danny ran off to get a teacher and then you kinda went all stiff, and the air started smelling like it does when Deaton is doing one of the full-moon ceremonies.”  Derek’s words began coming faster and faster without him even realizing.  “Then the rocks exploded in the air, Jackson went flying backward and I’m pretty sure I heard a couple of bones breaking, but then your nose started bleeding and you passed out.  I caught you before you hit your head, and I’m pretty sure that being so worried about making sure you were still breathing was the only thing that kept me in control.”  Derek paused to look into Stiles’ eyes once again, though this time it felt more like he was looking into Stiles’ soul, before continuing, “Stiles, I was so scared!  I was even more scared than I was that night that we convinced Laura to let us watch A Nightmare on Elm Street just before bed and then it stormed all night.”

 

When the scent of pain on the air spiked, Derek paused and looked down at his hands that were still holding Stiles’ realizing that his grip might have gotten just a bit too tight.  “Sorry,” Derek whispered still staring into Stiles’ eyes, “just, please don’t ever do that to me again.”

Stiles coughed as his cheeks pinked, “I’ll do my best.”

John Stilinski let out a low whistle and ruffled Stiles’ hair, “Well, damn kid, it looks like you do take after your Grandma Kathleen after all.”

“See kiddo,” Claudia whispered as she smoothed Stiles’ hair back down, “I always did tell you that you were my own bit of magic.”

The intimate family moment was burst when Deaton spoke up once more, “You’re both quite right.  I had the honor of studying under Kathleen Stilinski when I was an apprentice and she told me her own story of coming into her powers.”  Deaton began rummaging through drawers and shelved as he continued, “It is my opinion that Stiles is, at the very least, going to be twice as powerful as Kathleen ever was.  While Kathleen was loved by your father, Noah,” John rolls his eyes at the use of his first name having long ago given up on convincing the emissary to use his preferred name, “and she did grow to love him in return, Kathleen and John were not mates.  They, of course, had the potential to become mates, but neither of them acted on it, and since Kathleen never completed a mating bond she never reached her full potential for power.”

“Deaton,” John’s voice had started to border on dangerous, “what are you trying to say?”

“Our sons have formed a mating bond, Noah Johnathan.  At the young ages of nine and ten respectively, Stiles and Derek have chosen each other for life and beyond,” Talia’s voice was carrying the full weight of her Alpha authority and offered no room for argument.  “They will have to enter into training beginning this summer, Stiles will be our pack’s next emissary, and Derek will be his right hand.”

Talia’s declaration was met with a nod from Deaton as he left the room, supposedly to make preparations for Stiles’ and Derek’s upcoming training using whatever it was in the jar that he had finally located.  Stiles and Derek couldn’t look away from each other’s eyes if their lives depended on it at the moment.  Claudia moved to greet her Alpha with a hug, and John ran his hands down his face succinctly summing up the situation with a well-earned curse of, “Well, fuck.”

 


	3. Chapter 3

After the disaster that was Derek’s first day of public school, the rest of the school year went impossibly smoothly.  Jackson transferred to a private school, and Danny turned out to be incredibly nice.  Derek met Stiles’ friends and they all got along as well as a group of fourth graders can be expected to get along.

 

Derek especially bonded with Vernon Boyd, trading tips on how to manage life with a younger sister.  According to Stiles, Danny and Lydia were much more fun now that they weren’t constantly trying to make up for Jackson.  Without much effort and in little time, Danny, Lydia, Stiles, Derek, and Boyd formed a group that few knew how to handle and most knew to fear and respect.

One day at the end of the school year during lunch, one of the third graders started shaking uncontrollably.  Derek rushed to her side and, at Lydia’s urging, helped her onto her side on the ground.  “I’ve seen this before, she’s having a seizure, Danny, go get a teacher and tell them to call an ambulance,” Lydia commanded.

Danny took off running yelling for a teacher to come help.  Boyd kept the other fourth graders and as well as the fifth graders back while Stiles herded the third graders over to his group’s usual table and tried to calm them down.

A teacher arrived within a minute or two and soon the little girl was being taken away in an ambulance as the rest of the kids ate their lunch in their classrooms.  The group that helped the girl were given an award for handling the situation so well and the teacher that was supposed to be on lunch duty that day was put under investigation for leaving the lunchroom unsupervised.

When the little girl returned to school two weeks later, Erica Reyes introduced herself to the group and thanked them for helping her. After that Erica was as much a part of the group as any of them, playing with them at every recess and sitting with them at lunch.

When summer came Derek made sure that he had everyone’s phone number so that his mom could call their parents to set up times for them to all get together over the summer.  While the group of friends was able to meet over the summer those fun times were not, by any means, what made up the majority of Derek and Stiles’ summers.

With summer break came the beginning of Emissary pair training for Stiles and Derek.  For Stiles, this meant long days spent in the back room of Deaton’s animal clinic reading about the history of emissaries and practicing breathing and meditation exercises.  In some ways Derek was ahead of Stiles in his training, having had to complete the Hale Pack’s basic control training before attending public school, but now Derek had to learn advanced control.  This translated to long days following various adult members of the pack through the woods in the preserve and learning to rely on his senses and to trust them more fully.  Derek had to learn how to call the wolf to just under the surface and to keep it from crossing over into an actual shift.

Stiles and Derek also had joint training sessions where they focused on team building skills.  Sometimes these training sessions even involved their friends from school.  One such training exercise, that took place two weeks before the new school year started, and included the challenge of Stiles and Derek leading Danny, Lydia, Boyd, and Erica through a team scavenger hunt.  The added challenge was that Derek was not allowed to use any of his “werewolf powers”, as Stiles calls them, and that Stiles was not allowed to use his spark.  The point of the exercise was for Stiles and Derek to develop their leadership skills, and most importantly, to make sure that their team beat Derek’s older sister, Laura’s, team.

Stiles and Derek had to help their group utilize each other’s strengths in order to complete various tasks.  The group had to stay together as they navigated the Beacon Hills Preserve.  Throughout the Preserve several obstacles and tasks had been set, each designed to test either a specific member or a specific combination of members of Stiles and Derek’s team.  The challenge that Stiles and Derek faced was knowing who to assign to each task.

 

For some challenges, the best team member for the task might have at first seemed obvious, but upon further inspection of the task at hand, a better-suited candidate would become more clear.  For instance, one of the challenges included identifying edible fungi in a specific patch of the forest and then preparing and eating them.  Derek’s first instinct was to nominate Lydia for the task, her ability to identify plants only rivaled by Stiles himself, but Stiles reminded Derek that Lydia hated mushrooms and would, therefore, fail the task when she refused to eat them.  Together Derek and Stiles were able to decide that Boyd would do best with this task because he had the most experience with camping out of the group.  As it turned out, Boyd loved mushrooms and often hunted wild mushrooms in the Preserve with his family.

 

By recognizing the importance of fully thinking out a task rather than rushing into it Stiles, Derek, and their friends managed to win the scavenger hunt, but the celebration was cut short when Claudia suddenly collapsed and had to be rushed to the hospital.

Claudia spent three weeks in the hospital undergoing test after test before the doctors decided that she was stable enough to go home.  All of the tests came back inconclusive, and the doctors had never seen anything like it before.  Talia suspected that Claudia’s condition had something to do with her werewolf heritage, but even Dr. Deaton had never seen anything like it.  Claudia’s body had started to deteriorate at a rate that suggested that she was aging three to four years a month and there were no traceable causes.

Stiles spent the first two weeks that Claudia was in the hospital only leaving Claudia’s side to use the bathroom and to shower.  When school started up again it was only at the combined urging of Claudia and Derek that Stiles was able to bring himself to go back to school.  When Claudia returned home Stiles threw himself into his studies and his training, suddenly determined that he was going to develop his spark enough to save his mother.

Stiles pushed himself to exhaustion on a nightly basis.  Derek had taken to bringing an extra protein bar and a bottle of water with him anytime that he knew that he was going to be seeing Stiles because his mate had stopped taking care of himself.  While Derek technically knew that he wasn’t actually physically feeling Stiles’ exhaustion through their bond, he still sometimes wondered.  It seemed that just being near Stiles made Derek tired at times, but Derek would take feeling tired when it meant that he could convince his mate to lay down and take a nap with him.

Between Derek, Talia, and the rest of the pack’s efforts Stiles, John, and Claudia all managed to survive the entire school year, but only just barely.  John had turned to drinking to mask the pain of watching his wife die and being unable to stop his son from taking that burden upon his own shoulders.  Peter was truly a good friend for John in these times making sure that John never drank so much that he lost himself completely to addiction and always making sure that John never drove while intoxicated.  Claudia was never alone for more than fifteen minutes, and even then it was more the illusion of being alone than actually being left alone, at least one of the pack constantly with her to keep her as comfortable as possible.  Derek spent more time with Stiles than not with Stiles over the last school year, and it even got to the point where Deaton would allow Derek to attend his training sessions with Stiles.

By the time that summer was in full swing Claudia had begged Stiles and John to just spend the rest of her time making as many memories as possible.  Neither of them wanted to give up on her, but they could see the pain that she was in and they prepared to say goodbye to her for her sake.

When Claudia did pass, it was only the presence of his mate that kept Stiles alive.  Derek ended up basically moving in with John and Stiles for the six months after Claudia’s death because he was so afraid of leaving his mate alone and not seeing him again, not to mention that Stiles needed Derek’s physical presence to anchor his spark with his emotions so volatile.

Peter was at the Stilinski house as often as Derek was to check in on John and to help him take care of the boys as well as himself.

By the time that Derek’s eleventh birthday rolled around things were slowly starting to find their new equilibrium.  Life would never be the same but it could rebalance itself.  Stiles and Derek were able to go back to their normal training schedule, and Stiles was once again able to anchor his spark without Derek actually being physically next to him.

This new balance that life found lasted through the boys finishing both elementary and middle school.  The summer between eighth and ninth grade once again brought a season of transition, though this one was a welcome transition.  As Stiles and Derek entered into high school they also entered into their new roles within the pack, beginning the process of Stiles taking over the role of the Hale Pack emissary from Deaton.

 

The transition started out slowly.  Stiles, with Derek by his side to anchor his spark, would assist Deaton in performing the full-moon ceremonies, and each month Stiles and Derek would share more of the responsibilities as Deaton took on less of them.  Neighboring and allied packs came to meet Stiles and to renew their allegiance to the Hale Pack knowing that a pack with such a strong emissary pair was not to be trifled with.

In fact, according to Deaton, Stiles became the most powerful Spark in North America, if not in the entire world.  Derek’s skills as the emissary’s right hand grew to be equal to Stiles skills as an emissary, and with this transition of power, the Hale Pack was well on its way to becoming the most influential pack in the world.


	4. Chapter 4

It is hard for Stiles to believe that high school is already over half over.  It seems like just yesterday that he was defending Derek and discovering his Spark for the first time.  It was days like today that he felt the loss of his mother the most sharply.  It was March 16th, the Friday that marked the beginning of spring break of his junior year of high school, and the entire pack was going to be meeting up tonight for an entire week of camping in the preserve.

Derek has never been more frustrated with Coach Finstock than he was in that moment, just because some of the guys had left a day early with their families for spring break Coach was making the ones that did show up to practice that day do extra suicide runs.  Laura was coming home from college today for the big spring break campout and Derek wanted to be home before she was.  Laura had only come home for three days over her winter break having spent most of it with her roommate turned girlfriend, Der I really think she might be my mate’s, family in France.  Not to mention, said girlfriend was coming with Laura for the week and Derek had to make sure she was good enough for Laura.

When Coach finally lets them leave practice Stiles and Derek skip the locker room and instead make a beeline for Stiles’ jeep, only to find that Stiles forgot to turn off his lights in his rush that morning and the battery was completely dead.  Derek’s car is at the airport for Laura to drive home in after her flight and most everyone else is already out in the preserve setting up camp, so Stiles and Derek choose to walk to Stiles’ house to wait and grab a ride with John after he gets off of his shift at the station.

By the time the boys make it to the Stilinski house it’s already 5:30 pm and John has said that he should be home from the station by 6:15 pm so naturally, the boys decide that they best way for them to pass the time is to make out on the couch like the horny teenagers that they are.  Things are just starting to get hot and heavy enough that Stiles is about to suggest relocating to his bed when suddenly Stiles feels most of his pack bonds flooded with terror before over three-quarters of them are snuffed out in an instant while he can feel several more of his pack bonds fading in the background.

When Stiles realizes that he has squeezed his eyes shut he opens them to find Derek frozen in place next to him in a half beta shift.  “Did you feel that?  Derek, what just happened?”

Derek can only shake his head in response, whimpering in the back of his throat.  He closes his eyes against the tears starting to well up and grabs onto Stiles’ arm for dear life as he attempts to trace his few remaining pack bonds.

Stiles understands Derek’s nonresponse and buries his face in Derek’s neck to attempt to trace his own pack bonds.

What seems like an eternity, and in actuality is forty-five minutes, later Derek opens his eyes and declares, “Your dad’s cruiser is coming up the block.”

Stiles pulls his face out of Derek’s neck and the pair stand from the couch still clinging to each other for support and make their way to the front door.  When the cruiser pulls into the driveway Stiles and Derek can instantly sense that Peter is in the back seat and that he is dying.

Stiles runs back into the house and throws everything off of the kitchen table before running to his room to get his bag of emissary supplies, and Derek runs to the cruiser to help John carry Peter inside.  No one speaks as Stiles sets to work, the only sounds in the air the broken whimpers that periodically escape Peter’s lips as Stiles tends his burns while Derek removes the bullets from Peter’s back and John examines the bullets to determine the strain of wolfsbane used in them.  The three men work in silent tandem for an hour and a half before Stiles takes a step back wiping his brow and says, “I’ve done everything that I can for him, the only thing we can do now is wait.”

Just as Derek is about to start demanding answers from John, the front door bursts open and Laura collapses in front of the door.  When Stiles and Derek get to her, they can see that Laura is red with blood from head to toe, and when she opens her eyes their color matches the blood on her hands.  Laura just manages to cry out, “It’s all my fault,” before she passes out completely.

Stiles and Derek move Laura to the couch and start to clean the blood off of her as they check her over for wounds.  Derek is moving more on auto pilot and instinct than anything at this point, the color of Laura’s eyes the confirmation that he never wanted to receive that his pack bond with his mother had been severed by her death.

Once Stiles is satisfied that Laura doesn’t have any life-threatening wounds he uses his Spark to guide her back to consciousness.  John and Stiles switch places at that point, Stiles going to tend to a wounded member of his pack, and John stepping more into his role as Sheriff in order to get the complete story from Laura.

John sits next to Laura and takes her hand, “Laura, sweetheart, what did you mean when you said that it was all your fault?  Do you even know what happened?”

Laura pulls her hand out of John’s grasp and curls in on herself, a move so un-Laura-like that Derek can’t stop the whine that escaped his throat at witnessing it, before speaking.  “Yes, I know what happened.”

 

Laura sits up on the couch and sets her shoulders a brave face in place.  “It was hunters.  The Argents.  Sarah…”  Laura shakes her head in shame, “Sarah wasn’t actually Sarah.  It was all a lie” she spits.

 

“Her real name was Kate Argent.  It was a trap, and I fell for it.”  Laura stands up from the couch and starts to pace in front of the couch hands clutching her head like she’s trying to silence a voice within it.  “I fell into the Argent’s trap and I got most of my pack killed because of it.  I gave her all of the information that she needed to know to turn our campsite in the preserve into a death trap.  They trapped everyone inside of a mountain ash circle and then shot them like fish in a barrel.”

 

Laura stops pacing and turns to face John, “She drugged me this morning, and when I came to I was tied to a chair with wolfsbane rope.  That monster made me watch my family being slaughtered on a fucking tv screen while she whispered how easy I had made it all for her in my ear.”

 

She falls back on the couch, head in her hands, tears evident in her voice, “When my eyes turned Alpha red, she cut the ropes and said that I could leave, that it was over now.  If I was the Alpha then the Hale Pack had been destroyed beyond recognition and her goal had been accomplished.”

 

At this point, Laura is openly crying, “She said I may be an Alpha now, but I was also an omega and that I would go crazy and start killing everything I came across.  She made the mistake of turning her back on me and I killed her,” unbidden a sob escapes Laura’s chest.  “I was so overwhelmed with the Alpha power that I couldn’t tell that I still had pack bonds that were intact, so I came home to die where my family had died, but when I got into town I could sense all of you here.  I’m so sorry, Derek.  I don’t deserve to be Alpha.  You have to kill me.”

 

Hearing his sister tell him that he has to kill her snaps Derek out of his state of frozen shock, and in the blink of an eye, Derek is next to Laura holding her as tightly as he can.

 

Laura hides her face in Derek’s neck and whispers, “Please, I can’t be the Alpha and there isn’t any other way to get rid of it.”

“Actually,” Stiles calls from the kitchen voice high-pitched and panicked, “there is a way for you to stop being Alpha without dying, and it would be quite the handy little ritual right now.”  He laughs hysterically, “What do you say, want to help me save Peter’s life?”  Stiles allows a short pause before his rambling starts to kick in, “By the way, the answer is yes, and you need to be in here like, ten minutes ago, so how about taking advantage of those werewolf powers and getting your ass in here yesterday?!?!”

“Peter is still alive?”  Laura is next to Stiles before he can respond.  She looks from Peter’s badly burnt body to Stiles, “What do I have to do?”

Stiles has John and Derek help him move Peter to John’s bed and directs Laura to lay down next to Peter on the bed.  Once everyone is positioned Stiles takes a deep breath before he then explains that the Alpha Spark is able not only to take the pain from others but also to heal them and that in order for the ritual to work Laura has to heal Peter.

 

Stiles can sense that Laura is about to interject so he barrels on knowing that if he doesn’t keep things rolling they might lose Peter too.  “Now,” Stiles explains, “in most cases when this is done it completely depletes the Alpha Spark and it ceases to exist rather than passing on to a new host, but I’m going to channel some of my own Spark into you as you heal Peter and my Spark will be doing most of the healing.  This means that there will be plenty of Alpha Spark left over to pass into Peter once he is healed, making him the new Hale Pack Alpha.”

John and Derek both look like they want to ask if the ritual is actually safe enough to risk, but Stiles knows that neither Laura or himself would ever be able to forgive themselves for not doing everything in their power to save Peter, so Stiles simply looks to Laura.

 

“Okay,” Laura nods, “I trust you, Stiles.  Let’s do this.”

The ritual takes two and a half hours and a lot of encouragement from Stiles, but with one last push of his Spark, Stiles feels the Alpha bond snap into place over Peter’s pack bond, just as Laura goes limp next to him.

Peter’s eyes snap open shining a brilliant bright red and a roar that shakes the whole house escapes his lungs.  Peter sits bolt up and turns to look John in the eyes.  “They have her.  The hunters have Cora.  I can feel her.  I know where they are.  Get your guns and meet me in the cruiser.”  And with that Peter takes off down the stairs.

Stiles has his arms full of mate before he can even fully process what Peter just said.  Derek is once again clinging to Stiles for dear life, this time repeating “Cora is alive.  She’s alive.” like it was the holiest prayer to ever exist.

Stiles, Derek, and Laura fall asleep in a pile on John’s bed waiting for John and their Alpha to return with the pack’s lost pup.  When Stiles wakes up there is a nine-year-old werewolf with her face buried in his chest, an eighteen-year-old werewolf curled around his legs with her face buried in their Alpha’s back.  Their Alpha who happens to be wrapped in Stiles’ father’s arms.  And a sixteen-year-old werewolf attached to his back.

This may not be the pack that he expected to spend the week with, but this was the pack that he had left and he loved them more than words could ever describe.  As the Hale Pack emissary, it was now Stiles’ job to help this small pack to heal and to allow life to find its balance once again.  Life would never be the same, but they would be happy again.


	5. Epilogue

The Hale Pack ended up moving into the Stilinski’s home.  John finally admitted that he returned the feelings that Peter had obviously had for him for several years, and the two men were very happy together.  Laura decided to take some time off from college and ended up attending the Police Academy after John gave her a summer job at the sheriff’s station.  While at the Academy, Laura met her actual mate, a hell-hound named Jordan Parrish.  They ended up getting married three years after they met.

Derek and Stiles discussed it at length and ended up approaching Peter about the idea of bringing their friends into the pack after graduation.  Peter was hesitant at first, but when he really thought about it, he realized that each of those kids already had tentative pack bonds, and then he welcomed them with open arms.  Erica chose to accept The Bite to help manage her seizures, and Boyd took The Bite because he wanted to be able to feel the pack bonds.  Danny chose to stay human, and Lydia revealed that she had suspected that she was a banshee ever since the night of the attack on the Hales.  Stiles and Derek decided that they wanted to wait until they were done with college to get married, and they chose to rent an apartment off campus rather than living in the dorms.

Two weeks into Cora’s fifth-grade year her lab partner Isaac came over to work on a project and never left.  It turns out, he was being abused by his father, and when his father’s rights ended up being terminated John and Peter adopted him.  John had been sent out to a house on a domestic violence call and ended up calling Stiles and Peter out to the house because an eleven-year-old Scott was having such a severe asthma attack that his nurse mother was convinced that he would die even if he made it to the hospital as soon as possible.  Peter ended up offering Isaac The Bite just after he offered it to Scott McCall.

While life was truly never the same, it did find its balance once again.  The Hale Pack, while still small compared to before, was once again growing and flourishing with fourteen members.  Slowly but surely, they were each healing in their own way, and each member of the pack was loved and valued by every other member of the pack, whether they be human, banshee, werewolf, hellhound, or a Spark.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! To see more amazing art visit [HD-Hale](http://hd-hale.tumblr.com/) and give him some love while you're there!


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